11/29/2020
People often ask why smoked brisket (and other meats) cost so much. This picture is a good one to talk about it.
Look at the original brisket. Then look at the same brisket after it’s trimmed, then look at it after it’s smoked.
Good quality brisket (choice+ or prime) loses a lot of yield in the process.
Let’s say you’re a restaurant and you buy a brisket for $3/lb. for simple math let’s use a 10lb brisket as an example. So that brisket by itself costs $30. The yield on it will be about 50%. So now you have $30, 5lb brisket to sell after it’s smoked.
Let’s say you sell that brisket at $20/lb. So that’s $100 sold for a product that cost you $30.
Now add, seasonings, wood, labor, paper/foil products, trailer/building maintenance, payroll, etc. That $70 profit gets eaten up rather quickly.
This is why some of the bigger high volume places can afford to sell their meats for less. They are selling a lot more. On the other hand, small businesses that sell out daily are done when they sell out, because they cannot afford to have left overs and keep their margins. It’s always a guessing game.
Support your local small businesses who slave over the hot fire for hours on end, HOPING and praying they sell out. Not these massive chains using electric smokers, cooking 50 briskets a night while everyone sleeps. When small businesses don’t sell out, anything left over is essentially a loss. Unless you want day old brisket sold to you the next day? I think not.
So next time you want bbq, look for those guys with the smoke rolling from the big rusty smoker, black soot covering their face, their shirt drenched in sweat and the passion in their eyes. The ones that TRULY mean “Thank you for coming by” when they hand you your food. I promise that will be the true Texas BBQ experience you are looking for.
